Well, duh! - Independent.co.uk has a piece by Paul Kelbie which informs that Britain expects that it will need troops in Iraq for up to ten years.
Kelbie has a great quote from Brigadier Nick Carter:
"We are in cloud-cuckoo land if we think we are going to create overnight a police force that is accountable to the population," the officer told The Scotsman newspaper. "We have to build solid foundations now for the longer term."
What surprises me is that people are stunned, incensed even, that the coalition will likely be in Iraq that long, let alone Afghanistan.
History should be enough for people, should they exercise some common sense, to know that we will be there for some time. Look at the two World Wars or the Korea and Vietnam. For cry'n out loud, we're still in all those countries to one degree or another in an effort to protect and support.
The only wars where a country goes into another, conquers, and then leaves are the wars where a country or body goes in to rape and pillage and leave behind utter destruction.
That's not what the free world is about.
